[Report 1908] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontypool Local Board / U.D.C.

  • Pontypool (Wales). Local Board.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1908] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontypool Local Board / U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was 311 per 1,000 per annum of the estimated popu- lation. The birth rate is looking up—last year it was 28 0, 1906 it was 29’5—so that, with a diminish- ing death rate and a higher birth rate and a lessened infant mortality, your district should be considered doing1 very well. Twenty-three of the 198 infants born to your district died before arriving: at one year of age, so that your grain is 175; but if the 95 altogether that 'died belonging to your area are deducted, you really have 103 to be added to your population. The Local Government Board require four tables filled up, and they are detailed at the end of this report, viz.:— Table I.—Vital statistics of the whole district during 1908 and previous years ; Table III.—Cases of infectious disease notified during the yea-- 1908 ; Table IV.—Causes of and ages at death during the year 1908 ; Table v.—infantile mortality during the year 1908. Table III. gives the number of cases of notified disease as 56. This will give a zymotic disease rate of 8 7 per 1,000 per annum of the estimated popula- tion. Last year it was 7 5 per 1,00J. There has been but two deaths from notifiable diseases, viz , scarla- tina one, erysipelas one ; therefore, the zymotic disease death rate is 0 3 per 1,000 per annum of the estimated population. That is a very small figure indeed. The diseases notified wereDiphtheria (including membranous croup), 3; erysipelas, 5 ; scarlatina, 43 ; enteric fever, 3 ; puerperal fever, 2 ; total, 56. Diphtheria. There was one case of diphtheria in January which occurred in a very damp house ; one of mem- branous croup in September, the victim being the child of a tramp and subject to exposure and the vitiated atmosphere of lodging-houses; and a case of diphtheria in December. The cause of the latter is quite unknown to me. The eldest of the three oases was two and a-half years, and the other two 19 and 11 months respectively. They all recovered. This disease—diphtheria and membranous croup (I regard them as one disease)—appears to be increas- ing of late years, although your district has fortu- nately been singularly free from serious outbreaks. The year immediately preceding had four cases notified.
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